RECOVERING POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY Multiculturalism in Canada Constructing a Model Multiculture with Multicultural Values hugh donald forbes Recovering Political Philosophy Series Editors Timothy W. Burns Baylor University Waco, TX, USA Thomas L. Pangle University of Texas at Austin Austin, TX, USA Postmodernism’s challenge to the possibility of a rational foundation for and guidance of our political lives has provoked a searching re- examination of the works of past political philosophers. The re-examination seeks to recover the ancient or classical grounding for civic reason and to clarify the strengths and weaknesses of modern philosophic rationalism. This series responds to this ferment by making available outstanding new scholarship in the history of political philosophy, scholarship that is inspired by the rediscovery of the diverse rhetorical strategies employed by political phi- losophers. The series features interpretive studies attentive to historical context and language, and to the ways in which censorship and didactic concern impelled prudent thinkers, in widely diverse cultural conditions, to employ manifold strategies of writing, strategies that allowed them to aim at different audiences with various degrees of openness to unconven- tional thinking. Recovering Political Philosophy emphasizes the close reading of ancient, medieval, early modern and late modern works that illuminate the human condition by attempting to answer its deepest, enduring questions, and that have (in the modern periods) laid the foun- dations for contemporary political, social, and economic life. The editors encourage manuscripts from both established and emerging scholars who focus on the careful study of texts, either through analysis of a single work or through thematic study of a problem or question in a number of works. More information about this series at http://www.palgrave.com/gp/series/14517 Hugh Donald Forbes Multiculturalism in Canada Constructing a Model Multiculture with Multicultural Values Hugh Donald Forbes Department of Political Science University of Toronto Toronto, ON, Canada ISSN 2524-7166 ISSN 2524-7174 (electronic) Recovering Political Philosophy ISBN 978-3-030-19834-3 ISBN 978-3-030-19835-0 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-19835-0 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2019 This work is subject to copyright. 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Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. Cover illustration: © House of Commons Collection, Ottawa Cover designed by eStudio Calamar This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG. The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland For Elliott and Luke The current of modern history was against us. George Grant S e ’ P erieS ditorS reface Palgrave’s Recovering Political Philosophy series was founded with an eye to postmodernism’s challenge to the possibility of a rational foundation for and guidance of our political lives. This invigorating challenge has pro- voked a searching re-examination of classic texts, not only of political phi- losophers, but of poets, artists, theologians, scientists, and other thinkers who may not be regarded conventionally as political theorists. The series publishes studies that endeavor to take up this re-examination and thereby help to recover the classical grounding for civic reason, as well as studies that clarify the strengths and the weaknesses of modern philosophic ratio- nalism. The interpretative studies in the series are particularly attentive to historical context and language, and to the ways in which both censorial persecution and didactic concerns have impelled prudent thinkers, in widely diverse cultural conditions, to employ manifold strategies of writ- ing—strategies that allowed them to aim at different audiences with vari- ous degrees of openness to unconventional thinking. The series offers close readings of ancient, medieval, early modern and late modern works that illuminate the human condition by attempting to answer its deepest, enduring questions, and that have (in the modern periods) laid the foun- dations for contemporary political, social, and economic life. The title of the present volume may lead one to expect simply an his- torical case study of a Canadian public policy. And the book does indeed begin with an explanation of the background to Pierre Trudeau’s 1971 establishment of official multiculturalism as the most effective counter- poise to the official bilingualism that was established in 1969. But Forbes goes on to develop a comprehensive and contemplative reflection on the vii viii SERIES EDITORS’ PREFACE origins and tendency of a new way of thinking about national politics and global governance. Because of Canada’s multiculturalism, many influential Canadians and some foreign observers now think of the country as “the first postmodern nation”—embodying a remarkably happy synthesis of nationalism and globalism. Forbes aims to show what multiculturalism really is by a meticulously critical analysis of its distinctive values. Its watchwords are diversity, inclu- sivity, sensitivity, and tolerance, but these gleaming words are shadowed by practices of homogenization, exclusion, insensitivity, and intolerance; and this provokes Forbes to a critical examination of the current under- standing of five more basic multicultural values: equality, freedom, recog- nition, authenticity, and openness. These words, with updated meanings, better define and justify the ultimate goals of multicultural policies. Forbes finds that the principle of the natural equality of individuals has been trans- formed into the administratively contrived equalization of admittedly unequal (sotto voce) groups; that freedom and recognition, rather than being understood as goals to be achieved, have become rights legitimating claims to the various compensatory benefits provided by bureaucratic agencies; that authenticity is losing its connotations of honesty and self- knowledge in order to put a better face on practices of deceptive domestic diplomacy; and that openness, having left behind openness of mind, now refers to “evidence-based” management (or “piecemeal social engineer- ing”) of the tensions induced by the diversity resulting from open borders. He finds, moreover, that these five goals are guided by the hope of eventu- ally “schmeltzing” all traditional religious differences on the basis of a new, progressive mythology, to secure a higher and less troublesome spiri- tuality. In short, Forbes finds his way through the “veil of words”—the bright, cheerful, welcoming, reassuring, misleading words—in order to see more clearly the problematic character of what multiculturalism has become. Forbes is aided in his analysis by careful meditations on the works of Will Kymlicka and Charles Taylor—the key theoreticians of multicultural- ism—and of Karl Popper, David Mitrany, and Henri Bergson. These medi- tations form the theoretical core of the work. In the two chapters (9 and 10) that precede his conclusion, Forbes conjures an academic who pro- poses policies designed to bend the arc of history toward multiculturalism, striking “a progressively advancing balance between universal values and cultural relativism.” Here we are treated to what one is tempted to call a series of Swiftean modest proposals, warnings of what the future holds, SERIES EDITORS’ PREFACE ix owing to the anti-democratic and anti-liberal nature of both the theory and practice of multiculturalism as Forbes has unfolded it. The resulting portrait shows the emergence of an Orwellian world of incoherent dou- blethink, in which experts nimbly manage internal conflicts at home and practice a bullying imperialism abroad, wherever they can, to export “dis- tinctively Canadian” multicultural values, “to show Canada’s exceptional national identity and to strengthen its unity.” After the completion of their work, “the truth of multiculturalism, all will … recognize, with relief, is Canadian and global monoculturalism.” Waco, TX Timothy W. Burns Austin, TX Thomas L. Pangle c ontentS Prologue xiii 1 Introduction: Celebrating Diversity 1 2 Official Multiculturalism 33 3 Visionary Policies 53 4 Culture and Equality 73 5 Cultural Freedom 95 6 Cultural Recognition 127 7 Ethical Authenticity 147 8 Forms of Openness 167 9 Culturally Open Governance 199 xi